Friday, October 5, 2012

Book Review: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future...

I found this little book on the display of new releases at the library. I say little because its right at 100 pages, which is significantly shorter than most of my reads.

While I haven't read his other two books, this is Michael J. Fox's third publication. I wasn't really sure what to expect. The cover claims that within it this book held, "twists and turns and lessons learned".

The book is broken down into four brief sections. The first discusses how Fox was a high school drop out, moved away from home to pursue acting, and though he had financial hardships, he managed to survive.

The next "part" is broken down into different school subjects and his take on each. I pretty much spaced out during this section. Although there was a funny bit in the Physics chapter where Fox assures everyone that he does NOT have a hover board. (Damn)

Part III discusses mentor-ship and goes into some details of his acting career. The final section visits his father's passing, his journey with Parkinson's and overcoming life's obstacles.

While I've read the whole struggling actor story before, it was refreshing to hear some of the details Fox discloses. For instance, when first diagnosed he coped with alcohol. We all love a happy ending, but its nice to hear more than the dripping optimistic bs that is often hard to believe. Yes, he learned a better way to live, but not before falling on his tush.

I did find it a bit deceiving that while the title and cover reference the Back to the Future trilogy, hardly anything from those cult hits is detailed.

There were some quotable lines but since this is a library copy and you can't (shouldn't) mark them, I lost the passages I enjoyed most.

If you should get your hands on this book, please let me know what YOU think. There's not much of a time commitment to it. I found it interesting, but at the same time I'm not exactly itching to read his other books immediately.